UCF HC Scott Frost sidesteps the Nico Iamaleava fiasco question as he makes his stance clear on the current state of CFB

It seems UCF Knights' coach Scott Frost isn't a fan of what is happening in college football. Since 2021, with the introduction of NIL and the previous introduction of the transfer portal (Introduced in 2018), collegiate athletics have become much more similar to professional sports. Players rarely spend their entire college careers at one school and have shown a tendency to move to new schools not in search of better playtime but for a bigger paycheck.

Asked this Monday at a press conference about Nico Imaleava's decision to leave the Tennessee Volunteers, due to faltering negotiations with regards to his $8 million NIL deal, coach Frost gave his opinion on the state of college football.

"I just think, in general, there's people in some of these players' ears that don't always have the best interests in mind," Scott Frost said. "And you have a tendency in life to think grass is always greener somewhere else, and usually it's not.

"When you're 18, 19, 20 years old, and you think money is everything, and it's not. Happiness and success are way more important than that, and I've learned that personally. I'm happy here and happy to be back here.

"Sometimes decisions are made for the wrong reasons, but that's life. Hopefully we can try to educate guys, too, as much as we can. And mentor them as much as we can to help them make good decisions."

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Scott Frost on how the NIL era has affected smaller schools like UCF

Scott Frost was then asked if he ever had to deal with a NIL holdout like the Tennessee Volunteers had to with Iamaleava. According to Frost, the problem is bigger than many people think, and smaller schools like UCF are usually on the receiving end of the worst consequences of the NIL era.

"Yes. I don't think anybody's really happy with the situation we're in now, except maybe the institutions that have just unlimited money to spend and they want to keep that advantage. If people really knew what went on, it's a mess."

"It's constant negotiation, and it's a bidding war for every single player, whether they're in the portal or not. That's the reality, whether people want to admit it or not. It's a sad state if a sport as beautiful as college football is won by the people with the richest boosters. That's kinda where we are right now."

Scott Frost went on to state that he wishes that some guardrails were put in place in order to avoid NIL and the transfer portal taking over the traditions of college football.